September 13 – Even though the Tampa Bay Rays look to miss the playoffs for the first time in six years, achieving a strong finish is still important.
They can take another step in that direction by beating the American League Central-leading Guardians for the second consecutive time in Cleveland on Friday night.
Tampa Bay (72-75) suffered a seven-run loss in three games at Philadelphia earlier this week but started a four-game set by scoring 10 runs in a 5-2 win Thursday, one hit, five relievers, seven scoreless innings.
Brandon Lowe hit his 18th home run and José Caballero had two hits and an RBI, as the Rays improved to 3–3 on their 10-Game 4 road trip.
The Rays are 8-13 since playing two games above .500 on Aug. 21, while having a league-worst .214 batting average with runners in scoring position. They lost 2 of 10 in those opportunities on Thursday but still managed a win.
“We definitely have to try to control these situations,” Rays infielder Taylor Walls said, according to MLB.com. “Be patient and hit the ball.”
Meanwhile, Caballero is 6 of 12 with two RBIs in his last five games. He never faced Cleveland’s Tanner Bibb (11-7, 3.56 ERA), who started Friday.
Beebe has already surpassed the win total from his 2023 rookie season (10).
The right-hander allowed two runs over five innings in a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
Beebe was arguably more efficient in his previous start against the Rays. On August 13, 2023, he allowed seven hits, no runs and only two walks in seven innings of a 9–2 road win at Cleveland.
Tampa Bay will go against Jack Littell (6-9, 3.89).
The right-hander returned from the 15-day injured list with shoulder fatigue on Sept. 2, giving up four runs and four walks over four innings in a 5-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins. However, he bounced back with a stellar performance in the Rays’ 2-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, allowing three hits and adding one base hit over five innings.
On July 13, in Tampa Bay’s 4–2 home loss to the Guardians, Little allowed only two runs (ERA) on six hits and two walks in six innings.
Cleveland (84-63) holds a four-game lead in the Central Division and scored a total of 16 points in a three-game road sweep of the weak Chicago White Sox earlier in the week. However, the Guardians managed just five hits on Thursday and allowed just one hit over the last seven innings.
Cleveland’s Ryan Thomas stayed hot with an RBI double against the Rays. In 11 games in September, Thomas batted .390 with 14 RBIs. Prior to that, Thomas hit .148 in his first 28 games after the Guardians acquired him from Washington.
“You definitely want to come in and do what they traded you for,” Thomas said, according to MLB.com. “Hopefully that will be sometime soon, maybe later this month.”
–Visual-level media
